NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's lacrosse team honored three players with team awards following the 2020 season. Junior defender Kelsey Dunn (McLean, Va.) received the Bowditch Award as the team's most valuable player, sophomore defender Zoe Durham (Dallas, Texas) won the Most Improved Player Award and senior Vanessa Yu (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) received the Holgate Award for dedication. Winning the Bowditch Award -- which is named after Barbara Bowditch, the coach of Yale's first varsity team (1976), and determined by a team vote -- marks another milestone in Dunn's rise within the program. After not appearing in any games her first year, she made her Yale debut in an 18-7 win vs. Quinnipiac Feb. 20, 2019. She then earned her first career start in the 17-10 win at Columbia less than two months later. She started all six games this past season, finishing third on the team in ground balls with 11.

Dunn is a member of Trumbull College at Yale and is a graduate of St. Stephen's & St. Agnes. She will spend this summer working remotely for Cyrus Capital Partners, a hedge fund in New York City.  The Most Improved Player Award, which is determined by a team vote, recognizes Durham's progress in her two seasons at Yale. After appearing in four of 15 games in 2019, she played in five of the six games this year and emerged as a valuable part of Yale's defense. 

Durham is in Ezra Stiles College at Yale and is a graduate of Highland Park, where she was a US Lacrosse All-American in 2018.  Yu's contributions on and off the field earned her earn the Holgate Award, given to the player whose dedication to the ideals of Yale and to the success of women's lacrosse measure up to the standards set by James G. "Gib" Holgate, a member of the Yale athletic administration from 1954 to 1985. It is determined by a team vote.

Yu has been critical in helping mold the team's culture. Elected captain by her teammates this past season, she began a tradition in which team members dedicate the season and each game to someone other than themselves.  That reshaped the team's thinking to make the season about others and/or a cause.  
 
Yu also created lacrosse "families" within the team.  Four to five players comprised a family and were expected to take care of each other.  Families would spend time together and cultivate their relationships.  This concept fostered a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. 
 
Yu has also been a factor on the field. She emerged as a regular in her sophomore season, appearing in all 15 games and earning three starts. She had a hat trick (her first career goals) in the season-opening win vs. Albany. She also appeared in every game in 2019, making three starts, and finished with a career-high seven assists. This past season she started all six games, totaling four goals -- including a pair in the season-ending win at Fresno State.
 
This is the second major recognition for Yu in the last month, as she also received Yale's Thomas W. Ford '42 Community Outreach Award on May 11 in recognition of her service to others.
 
Yu, who plans to go to medical school, spent last summer doing research in the Chun Lab at Yale's Cardiovascular Research Center. She majored in history of science, medicine and public health and was in Jonathan Edwards College.
  The team awards help provide a conclusion to a 2020 campaign that was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. The Bulldogs showed many signs of progress in their fifth season under Erica Bamford, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Lacrosse. Ending with a pair of dramatic one-goal wins, the team was 4-2 when the remainder of the season was canceled. That winning percentage had the team on pace for 10 wins, which would have been the Bulldogs' most wins since going 11-5 in 2008.